Ben Guez has “a bunch of potential international wives [his] DM,” thanks to an automated script he created using OpenClaw test wheels, Claude code, and Instagram.
“I think it’s crazy because the potential is crazy right now” Guezcontent creator and startup founder, told TechCrunch. “I’m not sure if everyone will think it’s a good thing, but I mean it works.”
How does Guez charm so many women? First, it uses the open source AI agent OpenClaw to track the results of World Cup matches. After each game, OpenClaw triggers Claude to create and post an almost identical Instagram.test reel” in the same pattern. In the video, Guez looks dejectedly out the train car window, with the caption: “Can’t believe {COUNTRY} lost… If any {COUNTRY} girls need emotional support… my DMs are open.”
Guez has made the same post, except for the country name, more than a dozen times. But you can’t tell when you look at his profile, since test wheels don’t appear on a creator’s public page. Since launching this automation, Guez has over a million views and 200 DMs in a few days. This volume is even more impressive when you consider that Guez says on his profile that he will only reply to DMs sent via Canarythe AI language learning app, which means these women should download its app.
You have to hand it to him: Guez really takes “work smarter, not harder” to another level. But once these women realize he’s not really interested in Tunisian football, wouldn’t they feel they’re being played?
“They’re not angry, they’re more impressed, like, ‘Oh, you’re thinking outside the box, you’re a genius,'” Guez said. “I think it’s enough to be open [about] what you’re doing, I think it’s fine.”
TechCrunch wasn’t able to independently verify the actual reactions of these women, so we’ll just have to take Guez’s word for it. But we can tell you that Guez isn’t the only guy getting creative with the Viral AI helper. While Guez’s methods are a bit more outrageous, other people see OpenClaw as a way to simplify the date-setting process.
Jeff WeisbeinThe founder of a tech PR firm, uses OpenClaw to help him figure out where to go on dates in various neighborhoods in South Florida.
“I meet women who are in different parts of South Florida, so I don’t know all the restaurants or things to do,” Weisbein told TechCrunch. “I have my bot do all the research and make a document with links to why it’s an option for whatever kind of date it is.”
When I fill him in on Guez’s OpenClaw program, he bursts out laughing.
“I guess I’m not getting the most out of OpenClaw,” he said. “But definitely in the area of using OpenClaw to facilitate a task that I would otherwise have to do manually.”
Like Guez, Weisbein makes no secret of the fact that he uses AI tools to help plan dates (however, he failed when a woman told him, “I hate AI agents”). In some ways, asking OpenClaw where to go for happy hour in Fort Lauderdale is no different than Googling the coolest bars in the neighborhood, but Weisbein says he’d put the limits on using AI to mediate his actual conversations with women.
“I’ve seen people build bots and ways to swipe using OpenClaw, and I wouldn’t do that. They say it’s a numbers game, but if that’s what it takes… it seems like a pretty terrible way to do it,” he said. “I feel like you shouldn’t outsource your communication when you’re in a relationship to artificial intelligence.”
People seem hesitant to let AI step in when there’s a real connection, but a tech worker named Cailey said that once she decides to end a flirtation, she doesn’t mind using Claude to break things off.
“I started using Claude and created an automation that generates ‘I don’t want to see you anymore’ messages based on a few key terms I’d enter about the date. Then it would automatically send them for me at random times so I wouldn’t have to stress about when to send,” he told TechCrunch. “It worked really well until I mentioned it to someone I was on a date with who I had to send an automated message to and she asked if she was talking to Claude or Kaylee.”
What’s worse: getting ghosted or breaking up with an AI?
OpenClaw shocked the tech world with its capabilities when it went viral this spring, but security advocates constantly warn users about the dangers of giving unilateral control over all your accounts to an AI assistant.
For Lazer Cohen, co-founder of security-focused alternative OpenClaw NanoClawthere are strong privacy implications of outsourcing personal relationships to AI, even if his company touts date planning as a possible use case in X.
“Anytime you give an agent access to personal information and accounts, you need human approval in the loop,” Cohen told TechCrunch. “We’ve all heard the stories of OpenClaw creating dating profiles for people without their knowledge or consent, or OpenClaw dating coaches funneling to other groups that are also being used as dating coaches.”
The NanoClaw has found its way into Cohen’s love life, though he uses it in a way that’s a little more wholesome than the mass-produced reels asking disenchanted football fans to enter his DMs.
“My wife and I personally use our NanoClaw assistant, Rosie, to manage our five children’s schedules,” he said. “But ‘claws’ are widely used to help couples get through the parenting phase.”
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